[JLM]

We've probably all had satisfactory dealings with vendors, but I believe that one of the real measures of the vendor is that they go beyond the call of duty to take care of their customer.

I think it'd be valuable to share notably good experiences with vendors under bad conditions. 

Examples could be working through shipping damages, dealing with customs, offering to repair what they sell, fixing faulty design/construction related problems beyond the warrantee period, offering free upgrades, certifying old equipment for resale, taking in old pieces for credit towards the purchase of new stuff, stocking parts for older products.

Please limit your reponses to the truly notable "beyond the call of duty" kind of experiences.

Thanks

[zybar]

Well, I just had a very good experience with Peter McAlister of McAlister Audio.

I purchased a PP150 stereo amp from an AC member and unfortunately a bunch of things went wrong after the purchase.

The first thing to go wrong was having a main tube somehow go bad from the time I picked up the amp to the time I brought it home and fired it up.  I think this was just some bad luck and certainly don't blame Peter or the person I bought the amp from.  I e-mailed and called Peter up and he helped diagnose what the issue was pretty much immediately.  Peter was very good on getting back to me and he even was willing to talk with me late at night when I could be available.

Once I purchased some new tubes, everything was working fine.  However, two days later, I stopped getting sound from the left channel.  Again after communicating with Peter, it was determined that the amp would have to go back to Canada for repair work.  Peter was confident he could diagnose the problem quickly and promised a fast turnaround.

Well the amp arrived Friday afternoon and by Saturday morning he had diagnosed the problem.  In addition to fixing the problem (the wiring to the rca jack had become loose), Peter performed some upgrades and fully checked out the amp.  He did all of this over the weekend and kept me in the loop via e-mail.

On Monday the amp was packed up and shipped back to me.  So my amp wasn't even at Peter's place for a full business day...that's fast and excellent customer service!!   

I think the above would be classified as very good service and frankly is something I would expect as a customer (yes, I am pretty demanding customer as many AC vendors already know).  However, I wasn't really a customer of Peter's.  I bought this amp used and not directly from Peter.  He certainly didn't have to treat me this way.  It is clear from my dealings with Peter, that he is a man who not only stands behind his product, but he genuinely wants people who own his products to be happy with them.

While it stunk that I had a few issues right out of the gate, I look forward to finally being able to hear what the PP-150 sounds like. 

Thank you Peter for the excellent service and support.   

George

[elmalloc]

Mark L Schifter (AV123.com) 
SV Subwoofers (svsound.com) 

You can feel safe that you are always getting a great deal, and if there's any problem whatsoever, you will be taken care of.

-ELmO aa

[bunky]

Last year i had the Scanspeak 8545 midwoofer in one of my Loreleis starting to let go,i posted it on the Odyssey circle and Klaus who was out of town at the time PMed me the very same day and told me that he had instructed his boys in Indy to ship me a Brand new Scanspeak 8545 driver A.S.A.P.i got the brand new driver a few days after that and everything was back to normal  

[JLM]

Thanks for the replies so far.

My best account was of Bob Brines.  In his retirement Bob designs and sells speakers, mostly single driver, mass loaded transmission line (MLTL) designs.  After doing lots of homework and studying his website I contacted him about doing a custom speaker for me, which became his FTA-2000.  Fortunately he was interested in developing a floorstanding MLTL around my chosen driver, the Fostex F200A. 

Bob did the MathCad analysis based on manufacturer's T/S parameters and my desire to have the driver centered at my ear height while in my favorite chair.  I accepted the design and had the drivers shipped from Madisound to him.  He broke them in enought to test them for matching purposes and confirm the T/S numbers.  Then Bob built a test cabinet to confirm build methods and sound.  After building the finished cabinets he allowed me to pick the veneer.  I picked them up at his place where he had been further breaking them in and he let me listen to them before taking delivery.  All this for $875 plus drivers with only $25 down!

Where else could you get custom designed and built full range speakers with your choice of drivers for $1600?

[Bob in St. Louis]

Darrel Hawthorne of Hawthorne Audio.

I had a 15" coaxial develop a bit of an 'itchy/scratchy' noise under a very narrow Db/Hz range.
With no questions asked, he had a shipping label on a new driver before I had a chance to get my old one in a box.

he has trust, faith, understanding, and a willingness to get the issue resolved as soon as possible.
In fact, while I was still in "troubleshooting mode" making sure it wasn't something in my system, he insisted I stop trying and start packaging. 

Problem fixed in two days if I remember correctly.
  Kudos, a Gold Star, and a Blue Ribbon to Darrel! 

Bob

[jrebman]

Fortunately, there hasn't been any real issue with 99% of my gear.  The one exception was while returning a pair of The Horns to Ed Schilling because they just didn't sound "right" in my room.

On arrival at Ed's local fedex depot somebody obviously droppedthe entire box off the truck, smashing a corner and completely taking out one speaker.

In examining the speakers Ed noticed that one of the drivers was wired out of phase, so he took the drivers out, built me a new set of cabinets, re-installed my broken-in drivers and shipped them to me, charged me only for the shipping and told me to keep whatever I got from the damage claim.  He sure didn't have to do that, and was gracious and apologetic about the initial wiring mix-up.  Bottom line: Ed treats his customers right.

-- Jim